Birds and stuff

We have a lot of birds in El Rancho. Not as many as last year because the parotta trees are no longer with us. (I crossed myself at this point even though I’m not catholic, just in case.)

The lawn here lights up at night with fireflies. But they are getting less and less because there is a flock of some sort of blackbirds gathering almost every day and chomping down on them.

The songs of the birds are very intense and really quite nice. They are loudest in the morning although there are some we can hear chirping at all times of the night.

I don’t count the chickens that sometimes wander in if we leave the gates open too long. You’d think they would leave an egg or two.

A few days ago at lunchtime, we picked up Jim and Ylda and went for a drive to Playa de Coco. There is a lovely little restaurant there called ‘La Palma Negra’ (The Black P alm.)

Palma Negra is way out of the way and when they first opened out there vlast season, we wondered whether they would make it with no other customers in sight. That was put to rights on this day as the place was packed with almost all Canadians. The food is really good and we had a great meal. Jim and Ylda knew a few people from playing pickleball and there was a bit of a festive air about the place.

After the bill had been paid it was decided to go to Colomilla for another drink and to admire the view from La Vista Restaurante.

We want to take a trip to Europe in 2023 for our 25th anniversary year, so have to be careful about our BC Medical. The rule is, that to maintain our medical we have to stay in BC for 153 consecutive days. It’s not been a problem so far but this trip was for July which is in the middle of the 153 days.

“No problem” we thought, because there are exceptions that Rosalie has been investigating, but now the fun begins. Without going into details I have come to the conclusion that there is, in our bureaucracy, a department that is responsible for coming up with the most convoluted and stupid ideas. (I should get a job there, I would be good at it.) I suspect the person who comes up with the stupidest idea would get a nice fat bonus out of the taxpayers’ money at the end of the year.

However, a new decision was made to take the trip either in April or September before or after the 153 days. It’s safer that way and a lot less stressful.

The flyer from Coppel arrived today and I almost bought some winter clothes for walking on the beach until I remembered where I was.

Our trip to Copper Canyon starts on Thursday December 9th, so watch for some hopefully interesting blogs, unlike the drivel I’ve been putting out lately. Bye for now.